WCOOP Main Event Champions Gilles Simon And Rayan Chamas Share Their Winning Secrets

EPT Cyprus Main Event 2023 Champion Gilles Simon Won The $10K WCOOP World Championship Of NLHE / Main Event For $736,327

It was one of the toughest WCOOP final tables in terms of line-up, perhaps of all time. See for yourself the list of all participants:

• online grinder, regular of high MTTs, Igor «arodnaS» Popik
• 9-time WCOOP tournament winner, Renan «Internett93o» Bruschi
• regular of high-roller events, Yulian «AchoBogdanov» Bogdanov
• final table participant of the WCOOP Main Event 2024, Preben «prebz» Stokkan
• WCOOP Main Event 2023 champion, Ivan «ILS007» Stokes
• online reg since 2006, Matthew «mjw006» Wakeman
• top-6 finisher of the $10K GGMillion$ WSOP Online 2025 (the final table of this event was played the day before the WCOOP Main Event), Sebastian «sebasñato» Toro
• Mexican «4435GoldenBoy» — the only participant who could not be identified

The tournament collected a total of 407 entries. In the heads-up, Gilles «TaxationIsTheft» Simon faced Ukrainian Igor «arodnaS» Popik. The final hand is available on Twitter:

Payouts at the final table of the $10K WCOOP World Championship of NLHE / Main Event

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Gilles «TaxationIsTheft» Simon		$736,327.09
2	Igor «arodnaS» Popik		$560,366.96
3	Renan «Internett93o» Bruschi		$426,455.41
4	Sebastian «sebasñato» Toro		$324,545.46
5	Preben «prebz» Stokkan		$246,988.76
6	Ivan «ILS007» Stokes		$187,965.62
7	Yulian «AchoBogdanov» Bogdanov		$143,047.47
8	Matthew «mjw006» Wakeman		$108,863.54
9	«4435GoldenBoy»		$83,544.48

In Instagram Stories Simon shared how he boosted his luck. He used a Thai calendar of lucky and unlucky colors for each day.

On Wednesday, the lucky colors were red and purple — Simon played in a red T-shirt with a purple jumper draped over his shoulders. The calendar was suggested by “luck coach Dylan Destefano who learned from the great Punnat Punsri.”

Of course, properly chosen clothing does not guarantee victory in any tournament. Gilles «TaxationIsTheft» Simon began playing poker professionally at the age of 19 with MTTs for $0.50-$3.30. Later he won the PokerStars Dare To Stream competition. And his main victory came in 2023 in the $5K Main Event EPT Cyprus ($1,024,000).

Rayan «Beriuzy» Chamas Won Two Titles In One Evening

First, Beriuzy became the champion of the $109 Main Event with 20,587 entries ($212.8K). Beriuzy celebrated his victory in the style of bencb: opened a bottle of 15-year-old Bowmore Scotch whisky and launched a stream.

But that’s not all. On stream Beriuzy achieved another victory — the $1K PLO with 101 entries ($24.1K).

Of course, after such an ending to the series it may seem that Beriuzy is an absolute beast and crusher. But it wasn’t always like this.

In 2023, Beriuzy went on an $800K downswing online, after which he quit streaming, took off his GGPoker patch, and stopped grinding.

It was the biggest downswing in his 17-year professional poker career.

But Beriuzy did not leave poker and content creation completely: together with the best poker documentarian Michael Bailey from POKER films he produced the film “The Reality Of Being A Poker Player – Dealing With $800,000 Downswings.” It is available for free on YouTube.

The film tells the story of how Beriuzy started his poker career, where this nickname came from, what caused the downswing, and what helped him overcome it.

It has helped at least one person to get out of a downswing. In one of his Instagram stories, Beriuzy received a message from a player thanking him for the film:

Watched your film, got inspired, took the pressure off myself and won $100K in one night. Got out of my biggest downswing in one try. I’ll show your film to my wife. That’s the kind of impact your content has!

As for the secret of victory, Beriuzy shared it in the comments to the film on YouTube in response to a question:

How do you prepare for the tournaments after the cure (what plays the biggest role for you in order to achieve those great results except travelling and enjoying life)? Do you study more with solvers?

Always studying when I can but most of my life about balance. Im doing a lot more things unrelated to poker that make me happy. I have a huge sunday session tomorrow. Today I helped friends move into their new house, will go play tennis then dinner & wine with friends. I think this approach is better for me over studying the day before & placing too much pressure on myself.

Long Live The King! Vitaliy «king153246» Became The Best Player Of The WCOOP 2025

Let us remind you that earlier «king153246» became the best player of SCOOP 2025. However, this time the fight went on until the very last day.

Leaderboard results:

• Overall: first place — 3,715 points (+$25K)
• Low: first place — 1,090 points (+$5K)
• Medium: second place — 815 points ($7.5K)
• High: second place — 1,660 points ($10K)

The High leaderboard turned out to be the most dramatic. king153246 scored the same number of points as Mikhail «Fal1st». The battle lasted until the very last tournament – $530 NLHE Final Mystery. «king153246» finished 7th, while Fal1st finished 4th.

Results Of Other WCOOP Main Events

Ukrainian Bodan «MiMikyolo» won the $1K Main Event ($487.1K). The runner-up was Brazilian Dennis «dennysramos2» Ramos ($347.2K). The tournament collected 3,394 entries.

Canadian Pascal «Pass_72» Lefrancois won the $10K World Championship of PLO / PLO Main Event ($211.5K).

Finn Markus «O.Klunssila» Ristola won the $1K PLO Main Event ($88.5K).

Latvian Roman «RovoDice» Voitov won the $109 PLO Main Event ($26K).

Patrick «pads1161» Leonard claimed his 13th WCOOP victory in the $5K Main Event Turbo Second Chance with 54 entries (*$77,990). The runner-up was Austrian RhoNin9 ($81,911). Last year RhoNin9 won this same tournament.

Main Photo Credits: Danny Maxwell, Rational Intellectual Holdings Limited